In Bing Liu’s Preparation for the Next Life, Uyghur immigrant Aishe (Sebiye Behtiyar) is keeping herself mostly afloat in New York City and finds her perspective on life changed when she meets and gets to know Skinner (Fred Hechinger), an American soldier also in search of his purpose and a place that feels like home.
Awards Buzz spoke with Bing about making the transition from Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker – for 2018’s Minding the Gap – to a scripted feature based on a book and adapted by an acclaimed playwright:
“I think, because documentary has a lot more of a small chosen family, you’re just a ragtag group of people who goes out and does this work in really tight quarters. You break for lunch and talk about the interview you just got, or the verité scene that you just shot. Similarly, when I was working in the camera department, you’re just like a little family. You’re a circus of misfits who goes out and does these movies. But when you’re the director of a narrative film, especially something as complicated as this production was, it was very lonely. I would hear laughter from the other room from some of the crew, and then I’d walk into the room and the laughter would stop. There’s nothing I could do about it because it’s systemic. I knew that I was once the camera assistant, and you’re taught, don’t let the director know your name. That’s how you know you’ve done a good job. There’s that. The benefit was knowing that I had these two actors, Sebiye and Fred, who were with me on this emotional journey to help me just build this emotional little world together. That felt nice. It felt like it was us protecting the heart of the story.”
Watch the video above to hear about filming in New York City and what might be next for him.
Preparation for the Next Life is streaming on MGM+ and available on VOD.
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